Ace-Garageguy

Yes...I got it wrong too. It's not an O-470 either, but it is an aircraft engine.

EDIT: I see you changed the title just as I was posting this. It's not a Corvair. The valve covers look like a Continental aircraft engine, maybe an O-470.

When a friend of 20 years bought a PT Cruiser a long time ago, I found her a promo in the same color. She still has both of them, though the real one is looking a little tired at 200,000+ miles.

The kit parts simply represent a GMC-style Roots type blower with a cast aluminum upper adapter manifold for side-draft Weber carbs. Similar castings were made to run multiple side-draft carbs like the Rochesters that came on early 6-cylinder Corvettes.

Looking great. The bare "fiberglass" floors visible from the underside is a nice touch.

While the Esprit development chassis was initially based based on a much modified Europa TwinCam chassis, the production chassis is significantly different. But the fabricated sheetmetal backbone chassis is a Lotus production car trademark. Lotus designed the DeLorean underpinnings too...very similar conceptually Even the old Elan from the '60s, below, uses the same basic idea. .

You're welcome. A while back I wouldn't have recognized the LaSalle gearboxes for what they were, as they're lacking a lot of the characteristic details. But recalling that Micky Thompson used 4 of them in the Challenger I, I noticed that the Challenger kit gearbox made some other appearances in Revell kits. As this build is intended to use almost exclusively parts that were available 50+ years ago, I decided to not do an upgrade of the gearbox...kinda in keeping with using the dimensionally incorrect ancient AMT body shell (visually "sectioned" in front, too shallow height-wise at the cowl area; the backstory to justify it is that this car was built from a shell with the lower forward section rusted away...). On the other hand, there are a few things that are immediately visible that, to me, make such an instant impression (like the excellent Olds valve covers from the fairly recent Revell '50), I couldn't pass on using them here.

Mighty tasty.

The Revell Anglia / Thames, and their Austin and Henry J all rank high on my own list as well...though the Austin's and Henry J's engine is pretty awful, and they all need some fairly intense work to be really good models...but they sure make fine starting points...

Thanks. It'll still be a few months before I'm completely moved, as I have to arrange transport for a few vehicles (including building engines for 3) and several tons of tools, equipment, and parts. But I love it out there so much, especially as compared to here, that the effort will be well worth it. I've been trying to make this happen since around 2011, and the end is almost in sight.

Thanks for your interest. Yes, the trans is a LaSalle 3-speed. This one is from the Revell Miss Deal Studebaker funny car, but there are 4 in the Revell Mickey Thompson Challenger kit. There were essentially two versions...top-shift and side shift. The white thing on top of it is a mod that represents the top-shift lever tower. The top-shift was favored by most rodders. There were also different tailshaft configurations, longer and short, and they could be setup for open or closed drivelines...so if you want to be technically correct... EDIT: The early ones from Revell lack the bottom plate and bolt detail. The one in the '50 Olds has it, but it's a side shift, which can be reworked to a top-shift. I think R&M makes one too...though I wouldn't swear to it. Real unit shown below, bolted to an adapter bellhousing for a flathead Ford...

Thank you both. I appreciate your interest and comments.

Just an FYI: The idea of a clutch housing bolted to the engine, with a driveshaft coming out of it, isn't limited to vintage drag cars. This one is for an Alfetta, and similar designs are common on front-engined cars that have rear-mounted gearboxes, like the Porsche 944. Also bear in mind that back in the old days, racers made a lot of their own stuff. You can build a housing similar to this out of steel plate and pipe.

Yes.

It's a "looks roughly right". There were several styles of "in-out" boxes and clutch-only housings. Some in-out boxes (just a one-speed gearbox with a sliding engagement setup) had clutches, some didn't. The no-clutch ones weren't used on drag cars for obvious reasons. Here are a couple in-out boxes. The ones with clutches were pretty common on very light drag cars way back when. This one is set up for a conventional clutch disc and release bearing. This is inside the clutch end. This one is for a sprint car, with no clutch.

I like that. And a haboob's not so bad if you can seal yourself inside a 55 gallon drum 'til it passes.

Man...now there's a business idea with a real future...

I'm still trying to figure out what the target demographic was for these...

Mirrors? MIRRORS? You mean actual reflected light? Good dog man...how positively primordial. Only a card-carrying Luddite could want actual glass mirrors. Why use a simple reflected image when you can use a mess of tiny cameras, a computer image analyzer coupled to a radar proximity detector, a voice annunciator that tells you something's in what would be your field of vision, a voice-commandable interface that allows you to tell the computer to display a particular image, a transmitter that sends the selected camera image to an LCD screen, or better yet, a projected image on your head-up windshield display? All KINDS of useless complication and crapp to go wrong. Everyone who's not a dammed boomer knows that more complexity is BETTER. This is 2019 man. GET WITH THE PROGRAM!!!

You know...that might just be it. One of the ferals I feed is a big all black tom, and one of the carriers remarked about him one day when I was home at delivery time. If the cat's as badazz as the Monty Python bunny, we could have a serious problem.

Yup.

Time to send in a Warthog again...but don't forget the flares. That relatively low-and-slow attack profile makes a pretty good target for IR-seeking SAMs otherwise. NOTE: I originally posted a vid of the A-10's abilities that was much more illustrative, but it probably would have been deemed unsuitable for all audiences, or at the very least, "political".

One kinda has to wonder about producing something with the aerodynamic characteristics of a brick, when electric vehicles NEED good aero to maximize range as much as possible. I guess the target demographic is ultra hip urban adventurers who don't really go anywhere or actually do anything that doesn't require an app...and who live in the narcissistic "look at MEEEEEEE" social media universe. Whatever.

Lies always irk me, especially when they're employed in a CYA situation and there's no recourse. On the PO tracking site: Total and complete 100% BS. I've never requested anything to be "held" at the PO, and my easily accessible "delivery location" has been the same for YEARS, with postal carriers routinely either leaving things in the BOX or on the PORCH. There appear to be a couple of carriers who are just too dammed lazy to get out of the truck and walk the 30 feet to the porch if the item won't fit in the box, because this happens at least once a month. I've complained repeatedly to no avail. The carrier attempted to deliver your item. Nov 22, 2019 3:38pm Held at Post Office, At Customer Request MARIETTA, GA 30066 Nov 22, 2019 6:47pm Delivery Attempted - No Access to Delivery Location MARIETTA, GA 30066